Patron of the Arts : Sponsor’s Tenacity Has Helped Annual Black Exhibit Thrive

Her phone has been ringing off the hook for a month--70 times a day, on average. She has broken out in hives from the pressure of single-handedly assembling the “Artists’ Salute to Black History Month,” one of the largest exhibits of African-American art in the United States.

And Barbara Wesson says she couldn’t be happier.

“It’s going to be a great show this year,” said Wesson, as she sat in her Mid-City living room surrounded by clippings, publicity photos and other pieces of an overstuffed press folder.

“Elizabeth Catlett is coming. I can’t tell you how excited I am. And it really ended up being so simple to get her--once I decided to do it, it was easy,” she said, referring to the 74-year-old Catlett, whose paintings, prints, wood engravings and sculptures are widely respected in the art world.

Her tenacity has enabled Wesson not only to produce the show for the past 11 years, it has also steadily taken it to new heights.

From its humble beginnings as a weekend display for 15 local artists, the show, which runs through Sunday at the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza, will this year attract 125 artists from 24 states. Though organizing such an event may seem a Herculean task for one person, Wesson says ambition alone is more than half the battle.

“I’ve always had tenacity,” said Wesson, 50. “When I first got started with this, people said, ‘You won’t find anything to show.’ Now I’m having to turn artists down because we don’t have enough space.”

The exhibit will showcase paintings, lithographs, sculpture, stained glass, serigraphs and quilting, among other art forms. The first-time “Legends” exhibit will feature works by four luminaries of African-American art--Catlett, muralist John T. Biggers, sculptor Richmond Barthe and serial painter Jacob Lawrence.

“Catlett, Biggers, Lawrence--these people are giants in the field,” said Beatrice Davis, a Los Angeles art collector. “The coming together of so many talented artists is so exciting . . . I wish it could go two weeks so I could take it all in. For something like this, there’s never enough time.”

On Saturday, Catlett will attend an artist’s reception and, along with “Legends” curator Samella Lewis, host a discussion. Other participants include such prominent contemporary artists as painters Varnette P. Honeywood and Synthia St. James. In addition to the artists showing and selling their works, there will be a “wearable” art show, discussions with artists, and lectures conducted by artists and dealers on framing, abstraction in black art and how to encourage young talent.

“This is much more than people coming in and just throwing up a tent,” Wesson said. “It’s a very tight ship. I’ve learned that it’s not just the work, it’s how things are presented.”

This is the second year the exhibit is taking place at Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza. For its first nine years the show was at Fox Hills Mall in Culver City, but the exhibit--run solely on small entry fees from the artists, donated space and volunteer help--outgrew its quarters.

Wesson said logistics hasn’t been the only problem she’s encountered in organizing the show. “It’s been a real education all around, especially as the show has taken off,” Wesson said. “Initially, someartists didn’t even want to give up copies of their work to help advertise the show. The thinkinghas really changed.”

Wesson’s promotional skills were honed in the early stages of her own career as an artist. While pursuing acting at Los Angeles City College in the 1960s, she discovered art “accidentally” when she bought a beginning painter’s kit.

“I thought it would give me something to do between acting interviews,” Wesson said. “My stuff was awful--I mixed oils and acrylics and they rubberized--but once you get an idea in your head, you really feel you can do it.”

Two weeks after buying the kit, Wesson had her first show. It had limited success, but it inspired her in 1967 to pursue art full time.

In the early 1980s, after discovering during a national tour that black artists had few public forums, she formed the Bunker Hills Art League, a 300-plus group of minority artists living in and around the downtown area.

Though the league folded a year after Wesson began the annual salute to Black History Month, many of its former members became featured participants in the show, including painter-sculptors Charles Bibbs and Marian Williams, and portrait artist Charles Haywood.

“This a great service to the public, and especially to kids,” said painter Ernie Barnes, a longtime colleague of Wesson’s who will speak on Neo-Mannerist art on the closing day of the exhibit. “We have become so tied to values that are basically materialistic, it’s great for people to be able to see working artists. I’ve really been impressed with what Barbara’s done for the community.”

Baltimore artist Larry (Poncho) Brown called the five-day exhibit the most important gathering of black artists in the country.

“You can come out and meet who’s who in the art world,” said Brown, a second-year participant and painter who designed the show’s promotional poster, entitled “Unity . . . Our Strength, Our Future.” “Black people rarely get the opportunity to perpetuate their own culture. It’s time to reclaim that.”

Doris Howard, one of 35 volunteers who staff booths during the exhibit, said the attention Wesson’s show focuses on black artists is its own reward. “The show is very important in that it encourages young artists,” said Howard, a retired teacher and school administrator. “It lets students in elementary school, high school and college know that there’s a chance for them, there’s hope.”

“Artists’ Salute to Black History Month,” through Sunday at Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza, Martin Luther King Jr. and Crenshaw boulevards. Hours are 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. today and Friday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday. Admission is free.